Platoon -- I barely remember that; it couldn't have made much of an impression! But that long opening sequence alone qualifies Full Metal Jacket as a downer. The movie wasn't even nominated for an Oscar.

I think the first real downer I saw -- that is, the first that truly got to me -- was The Bicycle Thief. It was nominated but lost. That one left me wiped out, bowed down by the hopelessness so graphically shown in the movie. That's pretty much been my standard for downers ever since. Another one I'd put in that category is Jude, a beautifully made movie which also happens to be depressing as hell. It was completely ignored by the Academy.

That opening sequence of Full Metal Jacket WAS the movie, as far as I'm concerned. I know it was supposed to lay the background for what came next, but I remember very little of what happened after that latrine scene. I think I was in shock! That movie seemed like an antidote to all the joking views of marine training that had come before, like Andy Griffith in No Time for Sergeants drawing latrine duty and rigging all the toilet seats to flap up at the same time during inspection, like a salute. Or Gomer Pyle failing to be intimidated by his sergeant barking at him, answering every snarl with that stupid grin and some good-old-boy remark. Remember the drill sergeant's name for the d'Onofrio character in Full Metal Jacket? Gomer Pyle.

I think there's something to the "downer movies hurt outstanding peformances, when it comes to awards" theory. I first formulated something like that back in the 60s, when I was in college, and my friends and I went to see the newest flick in town, The Pawnbroker. We were all knocked out, left speechless, by Rod Steiger's performance. And though we weren't avid Oscar-followers (we lived in the dorm and didn't own TVs) we figured he would win any award going. But he didn't; it went to Lee Marvin for Cat Ballou, in which he got to (a) be unexpectedly funny, and (b) play two roles.

So Steiger got his "make-up" award 2 years later, for In the Heat of the Night. And so it goes.